Hi everyone! It's Melissa, from Inspire Me, ASAP. Today I am sharing an idea that I use for learning difficult science and social studies vocabulary words.
We are currently learning about animal adaptations in science and the textbook is a very difficult level for my students to read with full comprehension. Usually, it is a struggle to just decode the words, let alone think of the meaning! Needless to say, I need to use many different approaches for scaffolding my science lessons.
Here's how it works! Fold a sheet of white 8 1/2 by 11 construction paper, card stock, or just plain printer paper, in half vertically. Have the students use their ruler to divide up the sections equally, depending on how many words they will write down.
The students write the vocabulary word on the front flap.
On the left hand side, the students write the definition, using the book for text for evidence and support. You can see here that my students are learning how to identify the source of their information and they write the page number for where they found the information. They also put the words they copied from the text inside quotation marks to show that it came from the book and it is not their idea. :)
On the right hand side, the student write an example of the vocabulary word and draw a picture of that example.
Do you have any good tips and tricks for teaching tricky science and social studies vocabulary words? If so, I would love to hear them!
Have a great night!
Melissa :)
